‘64 Dart Three Point Seatbelt Help

-
chinze57

chinze57

Push Button tranny and a Slant 6 that'll never die
Joined
Nov 6, 2019
Messages
454
Reaction score
102
Location
Georgia, USA
Ive juste gotten three point retractable seat belts for my ‘64 Dart from Juliano’s.

The installation instructions say it needs to be inside the b pillar and welded in place, but a lot of the various installations for specific cars on their website have people sliding it up into place in the b pillar and then using retaining screws to hold it there.

I’m not sure I can get inside the b pillar, so I may need to just drill a hole for the bolt, grind down the paint on the b pillar, and then tax weld it on, and later paint over it to match.

Has anyone done this or have advice?
 
The metal in that area on the B pillar is in no way rated for crash restraint. No way in hell I would make that addition without some serious reworking and reinforcing of the inside of the B pillar. These cars did not come with 3 point belts and have no place for them in the B pillar.
 
RustyRatRod said:
The metal in that area on the B pillar is in no way rated for crash restraint. No way in hell I would make that addition without some serious reworking and reinforcing of the inside of the B pillar. These cars did not come with 3 point belts and have no place for them in the B pillar.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I was hoping the addition of the steel plate and such welded in place would be enough, but I suppose that at the end of the day it’s only as strong as the pillar itself.

My big issue isn’t that i don’t have access to the interior of the b pillar, perhaps under the headliner? I’m hesitant to remove it for fear of not being able to get it back right
 
chinze57 said:
Interesting. I was hoping the addition of the steel plate and such welded in place would be enough, but I suppose that at the end of the day it’s only as strong as the pillar itself.

My big issue isn’t that i don’t have access to the interior of the b pillar, perhaps under the headliner? I’m hesitant to remove it for fear of not being able to get it back right
Click to expand...

It might be.......but since the pillar wasn't designed with that in mind, I just don't know. Surely someone has added them. I've even thought about it on my 64, but I am leaving well enough alone.
 
RustyRatRod said:
It might be.......but since the pillar wasn't designed with that in mind, I just don't know. Surely someone has added them. I've even thought about it on my 64, but I am leaving well enough alone.
Click to expand...


I daily drive my 64, so safety is My priority. I’m going to install the seatbelts to the best of my ability and do everything I can to securely mount it, but not having access to the interior of the b pillar is the hold up. It’s going to look pretty ugly, even if I can get it painted in the right color
 
chinze57 said:
I daily drive my 64, so safety is My priority. I’m going to install the seatbelts to the best of my ability and do everything I can to securely mount it, but not having access to the interior of the b pillar is the hold up. It’s going to look pretty ugly, even if I can get it painted in the right color
Click to expand...

It doesn't have to. How good a welder are you? You could reinforce a good area with 1/8" plate curved to fit flush and weld it on with a nut welded onto the back side and recess it into a hole in the B pillar. Weld it on the B pillar and paint to match. It could look fine if you can weld really good. IMO, that would be acceptable as a crash restraint. I would "guess" maybe a 3" x 3" piece of 1/8 plate would be sufficient.
 
Last edited:
RustyRatRod said:
It doesn't have to. How good a welder are you? You could reinforce a good area with 1/8" plate curver to fit flush and weld it on with a nut welded onto the back side and recess it into a hole in the B pillar. Weld it on the B pillar and paint to match. It could look fine if you can weld really good. IMO, that would be acceptable as a crash restraint. I would "guess" maybe a 3" x 3" piece of 1/8 plate would be sufficient.
Click to expand...

I’m pretty good at welding. Not perfect of course. The plate they provide seems to be 1/8” but is more like 1.5”*5” or so, with a nut welded onto the back and two holes for retaining screws.

I’m thinking that I could cut a hole just big enough for the nut to fit through, grind down the paint, and then fit the plate flush against the pillar, held in place by two self-tapping screws, followed by a few tac-welds and then going through and welding around the entire perimeter.

I think that may be good enough

Edit to add: I plan on taking pictures of the entire process and creating a how-to of this
 
chinze57 said:
I’m pretty good at welding. Not perfect of course. The plate they provide seems to be 1/8” but is more like 1.5”*5” or so, with a nut welded onto the back and two holes for retaining screws.

I’m thinking that I could cut a hole just big enough for the nut to fit through, grind down the paint, and then fit the plate flush against the pillar, held in place by two self-tapping screws, followed by a few tac-welds and then going through and welding around the entire perimeter.

I think that may be good enough

Edit to add: I plan on taking pictures of the entire process and creating a how-to of this
Click to expand...

I would want "more" than 1.5 x 1.5. Other than that, it sounds ok.
 
chinze57 said:
I might just make a version of the plate myself that’s larger. But I’m not sure just yet.
Click to expand...

It will certainly spread the load out over a larger area. .....hopefully you'll never need a "load" there.
 
Juliano has an installation kit for their seat belts. Which includes the proper mounting plates. Those plates would work just fine in the B pillars.
 
kesteb said:
Juliano has an installation kit for their seat belts. Which includes the proper mounting plates. Those plates would work just fine in the B pillars.
Click to expand...
THats the one I got. The installation guide says to outbid it inside the b pillar and weld it, but the pictures show someone doing it outside of it. Then all of their user submitted installations are different.

I’m going to do what I can to securely weld it in place against the Face of the b pillar
 
In 1966 Chrysler showed shoulder harnesses as a dealer installed option, but, I've never seen one that they installed. I wonder if they went to all the trouble of removing the headliner and welding in a plate on a hardtop. A post car looks to be a bit easier, but, I've never seen one of those done either.
 
cudamark said:
In 1966 Chrysler showed shoulder harnesses as a dealer installed option, but, I've never seen one that they installed. I wonder if they went to all the trouble of removing the headliner and welding in a plate on a hardtop. A post car looks to be a bit easier, but, I've never seen one of those done either.
Click to expand...

I got it mostly installed yesterday. The welding on the B pillar is all i have left. Getting the retractor to fit with my seats and still go into a good mounting hole was tricky, and I’ll hav to start all over when i replace my floor pans and carpet.

I thought about removing my headliner to get in the b pillar but I don’t believe it would have worked, or necessarily hold better
 
I added 3 point belts to a 64 Belvedere wagon I used to own. The B pillars had trim on the inside of them in that car, so that made it easier to hide my installation. I mocked mine up and decided where I wanted the seat belt bolt to go into the B pillar, and drilled a hole big enough for the seat belt bolt to go thru. Then I made a plate that was 6" long, and what I thought was barely wide enough. I didn't have to mess with the headliner area, but the headliner was out. On that car, the B pillar was tapered to narrow towards the top, so I made the plate to match. I welded the nut on it, and drilled a small hole towards the top of the plate. I ran a piece of welding wire down thru the B pillar to an access hole near the bottom of the B pillar, and ran the welding wire thru the hole I drilled near the top of my plate. Then I pulled it up into place and tried to put the seat belt bolt in to hold it. I had to let it in and out seemed like 20 times to get the edges ground down to where it would snugly slip into place. I marked the B pillar edges where the plate was, and drilled holes along both edges at my marks, to spot weld thru to the plate behind the B pillar. I actually impressed myself when I had enough sense to replace the welding wire with mason string to pull it up for the last time to weld. If I had left the wire and cut it off like I did the string, and let it fall into the B pillar...it would have made a little rattle that would have driven me nuts! :BangHead: I drilled a hole for the seat belt bolt in the trim piece, and it looked like it was factory. I am confident that it would have held, but thankfully never pressure tested it! I hope your installation works like you want it to. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top